Now that the new government is formatted, bringing for the first time since 1990 the novelty of common coalition between the left and right wing, the dilemma of names is replaced by those of the programs for the future development of the country.
May-June elections campaigns (separately) were accompanied with countless premises by all parties. Their positions sometime were the same and some different depending on the issues.
A undisputable issue, where the programs of all parties met, was the will to integrate Albania into European Union, which implies that naturally the country will move toward its approximation of the legislation with the European one and to the contemporary standards; free movement of goods and capitals; creating of as suitable conditions as possible for the free economy functioning; improvement of the custom and tax systems; development of sector policies in support of SME-s and agriculture; growth of competitive capacity of the economy; gradual settlement of the land ownership issue; creation of conditions for visa liberalization, etc. issues (or conditions) that are present in all appraisals of the EU progress reports for Albania and that our country has already undertaken as irreversible commitments to be achieved.
But there are issues, where program of SMI, - which for the way how the collation was created remained a decisive factor in decision-making and therefore the commitment to implement the reforms -, and that of main party in power (Democratic Party) differ.
A strong point that SMI made use during the elections was the anti-crisis program, which in fact never was made public in details, at the time when the Democratic Party was confident that the country was slightly affected by the global economic crisis and the previous measures it has applied such as tax reduction, have acted as counteractive in such situation. At the time when the global crisis is not over yet, despite the positive signals on recession halting, those two political forces should publicly reconfirm their unanimous position in the government.
Furthermore, the position toward the great privatization is another issue where both parties did not agree on the way how it is operated, and some time whether such privatization should have been done or not. Already SMI will chair the Ministry of Economy, which is directly responsible for the privatization. Therefore, its political position, prior the elections, requires another treatment with that of Democratic Party or vice-versa.
Other social-related issues, employment, health and education slightly differ, only in figures rather than on policies. Oftentimes, in his latest statements the current and would-be Prime Minister Sali Berisha asked for the common program points of the new government consisting of the left wings represented by SMI and that right wing, he has avoided to mention specific issues where the difference might stand, but he just pointed our the common denominator that the integration and reforms in some sectors. Perhaps this government will manage to overcome some differences in programs, but there are other issues for whom a prominent and common decision is needed, and that certainly require clear approximation and reconfirmation not only in term of politics, but also in decision-making.
